Decorating the Tree
by Mulderette
Summary: Ty, Sully and Carlos decorate a tree for Christmas.


Title: Decorating the Tree  
  
Author: Lynne Facella  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Email: lynne1919@aol.com  
  
Disclaimer: All characters are the property of John Wells and Edward Allen Bernero. I wish they were mine but unfortunately they're not.  
  
WARNING: This story contains a few "adult" Christmas references that some might find offensive. They are just meant to be taken lightly and I don't mean any disrespect towards Christmas. I just wanted to warn you.  
  
Summary: Ty, Sully and Carlos get together to decorate a tree.  
  
*****  
  
  
  
"Door's open," Ty called out as the sound of someone knocking on the door echoed through his and Carlos' apartment.   
  
  
  
"Hey, you just let anyone come on in?" Sully asked as he entered through the front door.   
  
"I knew it was you," Ty stated.  
  
  
  
"You couldn't know for sure," Sully said as he walked past his partner to take a look at the Christmas tree. "For all you knew I could have been some whacked out serial killer."   
  
  
  
Ty grinned and shook his head. "Yeah well I decided to take my chances and I guess we're safe."   
  
  
  
"Hey, Sully." Carlos entered the living room from the kitchen. "How do you like our tree?"  
  
  
  
"Umm...it's interesting," Sully finally said, for lack of anything better to say. It truthfully was one of the lamest looking trees he had ever seen.  
  
  
  
"What's wrong with it?" Ty asked defensively.   
  
  
  
Sully turned toward his partner, an incredulous look on his face. "You're not serious, are you? Did either of you guys ever see 'A Charlie Brown Christmas?' This tree makes that one look like the tree in Rockefeller Center."   
  
  
  
"It's not that bad," Ty protested.  
  
  
  
Sully shook his head. "Come on, Davis. I saw the kinds of trees you had when you were a kid. They were big, beautifully decorated trees. They certainly weren't anything like this one."   
  
  
  
"We can fix it up." Ty moved towards the tree and tried to adjust the branches so that the tree looked fuller. "I like this one. Besides, when I was a kid, I never got to pick out the tree. My sisters never liked the ones that I liked. I hardly even got to help decorate either. They were always pushing me out of the way, told me I was going to wreck it."  
  
  
  
"So, what is this then, some kind of Christmas tree revenge?" Sully asked with a smirk.  
  
  
  
"No, its not Christmas tree revenge," Ty said, just managing to bite back a smile. "It's just...I don't know... I just think we can make this one look good.  
  
  
  
Sully looked away from Ty and over at Carlos. "And you went along with this?"  
  
  
  
Carlos shrugged. "I think its fine. When I was a kid in foster care, half the places I lived didn't even have trees. From my perspective this looks pretty damn good."  
  
  
  
"You know...you don't have to help us," Ty said. "I mean if our tree doesn't meet your specifications..."   
  
  
  
Sully shook his head quickly. "No, no, it's fine. I guess I just expected something bigger, but hell it's your tree. Who am I to judge? So...where are the decorations?"  
  
  
  
"I'll get them." Ty quickly left the room and came back a few minutes later carrying two boxes which he placed on the floor. "Here they are."   
  
  
  
Sully glanced down at the contents of one of the boxes and reached into it, pulling out a headless figure. "Umm...what is this?" he asked, holding it up so Ty could see it.  
  
  
  
"The little drummer boy," Ty replied with a grin. "It's missing the drum."   
  
  
  
"That's not the only thing it's missing," Sully replied. "I'm beginning to understand why you weren't allowed to help with the tree."  
  
"Haven't you ever heard of the Island of Misfit Toys?" Ty asked mischievously. "This is the Tree of Misfit Ornaments."   
  
Sully looked back at Ty in amazement then slowly shook his head. "Is your mom coming over to see this tree?" he asked. "Because I can't begin to imagine what she'd think of it."  
  
"Mom would love it," Ty stated as Sully raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Well... maybe she wouldn't love it, but she probably won't see it anyway. We're going to her house for Christmas dinner and she doesn't come by here too often."   
  
"That's probably for the best. Mothers always hope some of their good taste rubs off on their children. In this case, I guess that didn't quite happen."  
  
"Come on, enough of that," Ty said. "You haven't even seen the finished product yet. You should at least reserve judgment until then."  
  
"Okay. I guess that's fair," Sully nodded.   
  
"You guys want some apple cider?" Carlos asked as he turned to head towards the kitchen.  
  
"Sure," Sully replied."  
  
"Sounds good," Ty nodded.   
  
Sully waited until Carlos had left the room and then glanced over Ty. "You and Nieto..." he mused quietly. "You know, when you first mentioned getting an apartment with him, I thought you were nuts, but it seems to have worked out well for you."   
  
"It has. Carlos is a great guy. We get along really great." Ty sat down on the floor by one of the boxes and began to pull out ornaments one by one. One in particular caught his attention. He looked at it for a few moments, a smile on his face, then handed it to his partner. "Hey, Sul...you remember this one?"  
  
Sully grasped the ornament in his hand, looked at it and chuckled softly. "I can't believe you still have this thing." It was a miniature bear dressed in a police uniform. Sully had given it to Ty one year when he was just about five years old.  
  
"Of course I still have it. I was always my favorite one. I always insisted on hanging this one every year, even when my sisters were giving me a hard time."   
  
"Yeah well...kids are always getting attached to strange things," Sully said gruffly, although inwardly he was touched that Ty had kept the little ornament for all these years.   
  
"Here you go, guys, hot apple cider," Carlos reentered the living room, carrying a tray.  
  
"Thanks, Carlos." It smells delicious." Sully picked up one of the steaming mugs and took a sip. "Mmm... it is really good."  
  
"Thanks," Carlos said as he handed another mug over to Ty. "DK makes it every year at the Christmas party. I really liked it and he gave me the recipe."   
  
Sully placed the mug on the coffee table and reached into one of the boxes, then pulled out a tangled mess of lights. "How did they get this bad?" he asked as he settled down onto the couch with the lights in his lap.  
  
"Come on, Sul," Ty laughed. "You've decorated trees before. The lights always get tangled. It's just a part of Christmas."  
  
"Not my lights," Sully stated a big smugly. I always make sure to put them carefully back into their boxes and this is the reason why." He continued to work on the lights, his frustration growing by the minute. Finally, he shook his head and handed the lights to his partner. "Here you go. Let's see what you can do with it."   
  
"No problem." Ty took the lights and began to work with them, at first just as frustrated as Sully had been with them. Finally though, with Carlos' help and more than a little bit of luck, he managed to get the lights untangled and they actually all lit up when he plugged them into the wall outlet.  
  
"Well...I've got to say I'm impressed." Sully grinned as Ty gave him a triumphant look. "Now I think we've got to seriously get working on this tree...and by the looks of it...we've got a lot of work to do."  
  
The three men began to decorate the tree. They strung the lights and draped the garland then slowly began to hang up the ornaments. "I've got to say...this is one of the more unique trees I've seen," Sully commented, watching as Carlos hung a scantily clad hula dancer on a branch.  
  
"Yep, no ordinary tree for us, right, Ty?" Carlos asked, grinning at his roommate.  
  
"That's right. Anyone can take those nice, pretty Hallmark ornaments and put them up, but our tree...it has character."   
  
"Character, huh..." Sully picked up an ornament of an obviously drunk Santa Claus holding a beer and dressed in a t-shirt and boxer shorts. "This is character?"   
  
"Course it is," Ty stated. "I didn't say it was a particularly classy tree. It's...it's a guy tree."   
  
"Yep, a real guy tree," Carlos stated in agreement as he proceeded to hang up a figure of a nude woman.  
  
"Where the hell did you get that?" Sully asked, shaking his head in amazement.   
  
"I got it on Ebay," Carlos said. "Ebay has all kinds of things."  
  
"You better make damn sure your mom isn't going to see this tree," Sully said, directing his attention back at Ty. "She'd faint dead away if she saw it."   
  
"Come on, Sul... if my mom is going to come by, we'll get rid of the more umm...unique ornaments."   
  
"You mean obscene, don't you?"  
  
Ty shook his head, grinning from ear to ear. "You've got to learn to loosen up, man. Our tree is not obscene."  
  
"I don't know Ty..." Carlos said as he picked up the figure of a bare-breasted dominatrix carrying a whip. I think this one actually might be considered obscene."   
  
Ty looked at the ornament Carlos was holding and nodded. "Actually Carlos...I think you might be right. That one is obscene."  
  
"And you two are sick," Sully said. "This...this is just plain disrespectful." He glared at Ty. "Your mother did not raise you like this."   
  
Ty exchanged a look with Carlos and the two burst into laughter, unable to hold it in any longer.   
  
"You think this is funny?" Sully asked. "I'm getting out of here. I've had enough of you and your ridiculous tree of Christmas porn."   
  
"Sul...Sully wait, don't go," Ty said, grabbing his partner's arm. "We're just pulling your chain man...we just got some of these as a joke."   
  
"A joke?" Sully looked at the two younger men and sighed in exasperation. "You two really are sick, you know that, don't you? What about the Charlie Brown tree? Is that a joke too?"  
  
Ty shook his head. "No, the Charlie Brown tree is real." He said, pulling the nude woman from its branch. "You'll see. It's going to look really good."   
  
Sully shook his head dubiously. "I don't know...I still should go."  
  
"We're going to order pizza," Ty said cajolingly. "From Vincent's...You know you love that pizza, Sully. It's our treat. You can get any kind you want."   
  
"Fine, I'll stay..." Sully said grudgingly. "But let's get serious about the tree, okay?"  
  
"Yes, sir," stated Ty, as he saluted Sully, but backed down when Sully glared at him. "Sorry, Sul, just kidding. I'll stop."   
  
"You keep it up," Sully said as he picked up the phone to order the pizza. "And your mother will get an earful over Christmas dinner."   
  
"I...you...you're coming to Christmas dinner?" Ty asked, giving his partner a surprised look. "I thought you were going to visit your sister?"   
  
Sully shook his head. "Nope I decided to go down for a week in February, make a real vacation out of it instead of just a couple of days. Your mom called me last week and I accepted."   
  
"Yeah well that's great," Ty said, genuinely pleased that his partner was going to be there as well. "I'm really glad you're coming, Sul."  
  
Sully nodded. Let's just fix this tree so if your mom asks about it I don't have to lie to her face that it actually looks nice, okay?"  
  
"Okay."  
  
******  
  
Two pizzas and three hours later, Ty dimmed the lights in the living room and the three men stood back to admire their handiwork.   
  
"See, Sul?" Ty said softly. "It -does- look good."  
  
"I think we helped it discover its full potential," Carlos said nodding. "Thanks to us, this little tree didn't spend Christmas alone and neglected in the lot with the other unchosen trees."  
  
"It actually does look nice," Sully agreed as he gazed back at the tree. "Though I still think you could have done without the headless, drummerless drummerboy."  
  
"Come on, Sul...where's your Christmas spirit?" Ty asked mischievously. "I mean...I wouldn't just abandon you if you happened to lose your head."  
  
"Oh real funny," Sully said. "You're just a barrel of laughs tonight, Davis."   
  
"Aww, Sul, you know I love ya." Ty then draped one arm around Sully's shoulder and the other around Carlos'. "Merry Christmas, guys."   
  
"Merry Christmas," Sully and Carlos echoed. 


End file.
